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sila: whoa!! that sure looks like fun! well done on participating and great job learning! hopefully you can…Hisham: Sure thing, Luke! Hope to see the birthday wish too if it’s possible.Luke: Hi, I would like to use one of ur photo to design a birthday wish for Sitiawan. I would put a credit …Hisham: Let’s just say “Canto Bight” was originally the name of some Tapani Sector noble’s pet duck.Edward: Or the city was named after the planet. Or they were both named after some forgotten dignitary. Weird…sila: glad that opah felt better though. hope she continues to feel healthy.sila: yay to a successful surgery! i hope you are recovering nicely. i’m imagining weird things with the s…Hisham: Thanks, chief. And yes I think your name is the longest we’ve ever had on here. Haha.

About

Hisham and Sila has been writing stuff down on this weblog since 2005. Sometimes they post photos of family, sometimes they talk about film, books and music, sometimes there is artwork and stuff about tabletop gaming.

Although having accepted a new job, there are many problems that we have yet to overcome.

One of the biggest perils to my final semester in my attempt to finally earn a Bachelor's degree (even though I'm married) was that the old laptop, who was my companion through adventure and hardship, is gone forever. (Or not; you can never tell with these techno-organic life forms.) Its hard disk drive gave up the ghost a month before we moved up here.

I have a whole semester of assignment writing to complete and no new-fangled electronic typewriter thing to do them with. Not to mention, no money to buy a new one.

Then one day, Atok and Opah Irfan sent me a package at my office (because being out in the sticks, we were not certain if the post office would deliver to the right house) and in the box was a new laptop!

Neodymium is the external hard disk drive. So are Promethium and old Ytterbium connected to the television.

I have installed Linux Mint 17 on it and are now customising it to my old freelancing specification with the installation of Krita, Inkscape and extra stuff added to GIMP. The reason Mint was installed instead of Ubuntu is that the Wacom Bamboo works perfectly with it without the need to install anything new.

Also, all my learning notes for this semester have been transferred to the new laptop and assignment writing activities have begun.

It was a big katak puru that took refuge among the old laundry causing Ain to scream out loud when it jumped after being startled. Ain and the local fauna appear to love to startle each other at the same time. It attempted to flee deeper into where the glassware was stored, but Irfan and I boxed it in, literally.

Last Monday, Irfan's only living great grandmother passed away. She was 91 and only after her death did we learn that both Irfan and his Nyang shared a birthday.

We departed for Pasir Mas to pay our last respects to Nyang. Because of financial reasons we had never balik kampung to Pasir Mas in the entire year of 2014.

For a moment we had to cancel the trip which saddened Irfan a great deal as he was looking forward to meet his cousin Aiman who he had not seen since we left Kuala Lumpur. Then a cheque cleared at the bank.

Irfan read Ya Seen at Nyang's graveyard with Aiman at his side.

Tok Bah and Tok Ma also read Ya Seen for Nyang's departed husband who Irfan never met.

Earlier, Irfan and Aiman also taught (or attempted to, as time was short) their second cousins to play Uno.

Needless to say, Irfan spent as much as he could playing with Aiman and his sister Zara before they left for Kuala Lumpur.

Ain and I couldn't celebrate our recent birthdays during our birthdays for one reason or another. Then we both received some extra coin for doing some freelance work. So we all went for some cheeseburgers at Burger Republik, which I hope would not be appropriated into Burger Imperial at some point by Palpatine.

It's not too far from the house, just over a klick away en route from town. I have made an observation before that this town might have a higher density of burger joints in a single area than Kuala Lumpur.

They also have chicken chop, which looked tantalising on the menu but they were not serving any today as the chef was called away for wedding food and beverages duty.

Ain's was a double beef patty and you could still order a triple. Mine was a mutton patty. Ain or course, would not touch mine.

Irfan's towering double burger had extra cheese as all of Irfan's burgers are wont to have.

While we were in Ocala, Florida on a work trip, the local colleagues recommended that we visit Silver Springs, Florida and try out the glass bottom boats. So that is what we did! It was not far from our hotel (one town over) and quite convenient, and as it turned out, it was really really amazing! We all loved it! So here are some pictures.

OK, here are a lot of pictures! We weren't there more than a few hours but it really was very cool. We would definitely go again if we had the chance, to experience the glass bottom boat again.